


This (Dis)Fortune of Ours

by JakJakQuin



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Background Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Family Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Minutemen centric storyline, Multi, Multiple Sole Survivors, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, adopted family, multiple survivors - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29275773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JakJakQuin/pseuds/JakJakQuin
Summary: Pre-war lawyer, mother and now widow, Nora isn't destined to be the sole survivor of Vault 111 when three other people awaken from a cryogenic deep freeze. Together the four of them try to find a place in this dangerous new wasteland. These poor unfortunate souls will have to band together for survival and in doing so will truly learn the many ways family is defined.
Relationships: Nate/Nora(Past), Nora/???, Sturges (Fallout)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	This (Dis)Fortune of Ours

Nora Smith cradles Nate’s wedding ring in her hands as the pod closes again like a frozen cryptic when a scream breaks through her foggy mind. Nora’s head snapped to the sound, Shaun on her mind. Seeing another person standing further down took her by surprise. He couldn’t be older than 16, standing in front of an open pod, holding the hand of the old woman inside. The older woman was not moving and Nora sadly came to the conclusion that she had passed too. Another scream that sounded like a child reverberated through the metal halls, finally kicking Nora’s brain into gear as she rushed to the screams. 

Nora quickly finds herself in another cold room full of pods, on the floor is a woman holding a crying child. The child was reaching for a pod and trying to pull out of the woman’s arm, tears and heavy sobs racking her tiny body. Nora came over to the pair and kneeled down, making soothing sounds and wiping the tears from the girls cheeks. 

“They are all dead.” A cracked voice came from behind Nora, who whipped around to see the boy from earlier standing in the doorway. “If, If they are still in the pods, they seem to be dead.” Tears flowed freely down his cheeks as he stood awkwardly by the door. The other woman nodded in agreement and waved the boy over with one arm. It was all he needed to come over, joining the pile of tears and sorrow. 

Once all the tears shed as they took comfort in each other's shared trauma. Nora stood first, helping the other woman to her feet. The woman was obviously pregnant but not so far along that it would hinder her too much. 

“Um.. I’m Nora Smith, my- my husband Nate and I moved to the Sanctuary a couple of months ago.” Her voice shook over Nate’s name but made it through her greeting. "This- this is all so crazy but, um, we should stick together. Safety in numbers, right? Let's go see if we can find out what's happened to us and everyone else. Yeah?" She looked to the others for a response. They all silently looked back tear tracks being intermittently wiped away. With a sigh the other woman got up and children quietly followed her lead.

“Sharon Dawn” the pregnant woman greeted back. Idly running her hand obvious bump. Noticing the younger ones not speaking up, she moved to smooth down Vanessa’s wild curls. “And who are you honey?”

Vanessa looked up Sharon then to Nora and the boy. “My name is Vanessa.” The women turn to the lanky boy, waiting for him to introduce himself. 

The boy scuffs his foot on the floor not looking at them, still wiping stray tears from his eyes. “I’m Ian Williams”

Nora nodded once to the group and took another steadying breath. “Ok now that we are no longer strangers how about we find our way out of here?” Receiving nods in return she took lead. 

The group makes their way down the hall, retracing their steps from what felt like yesterday. After finding the exit locked they explored further into the vault looking for a way to the exit. The whole vault was cold and near silent other than their footsteps. Nora spots movement in the window of the generator and moves to investigate.

“Hey I found a terminal.” Ian’s voice stopped Nora in her tracks as she moved to see what Ian found. In the room across from the window Nora found Ian sat in front of a terminal, typing away. Sharon was now holding Vanessa as she looked over Ian’s shoulder to read along with him. 

“Looks like they always intended to deep freeze us.” Ian stated as he read through the different files in the security logs. He paused over the last entry and took in a quick breathe. 

“What happened?” Nora asked, stepping closer to the group. 

“It seems that they never got the all clear and were running out of food. I think they left anyway and left us frozen?” Ian said though he seemed unsure with what happened in the end it still couldn’t have been good. 

“That’s awful. But if they didn’t return then maybe it's safe outside.” Sharon said rocking a sleepy Vanessa on her hip. 

“I guess we are going to find out one way or another.” Nora stated as she reread the last entry before moving towards the door. Sharon and Ian follow behind. 

After walking down another corridor Nora stopped dead in the door, there on the window was a giant bug. They had to be almost as big as Vanessa. As Nora watched she saw it jump down showing off wings as it landed. It looked like a cockroach and Nora hated cockroaches. 

“What is it?” Sharon asked from behind her, trying to pier over Nora’s shoulder while holding Vanessa away in case it was really bad. 

“A big a-. A very big Bug” Nora said, catching herself before she started cursing in front of the children. Nora Slowly creeped into the room scanning for more bugs. Pointing at the door next to the window “Don't open that door.” 

The once sleepy Vanessa was now wide awake and holding tight to Sharon's neck. Ian brought up the rear of the group as they entered and explored the staff's quarters. The whole place looked ransacked. Sharon set Vanassa on the long table in the center of the kitchen while she checked the fridge and cabinets for food. Ian immediately sits at the terminal in the kitchen and reads through the files for more clues. Nora moved through the rooms looking for a way around the room with the bug. 

“Find anything?” Nora asked as she came back into the kitchen. 

Ian swirled in the chair holding up a holotape with a small smile. “I found a copy of Red Menace.” 

“Nothing here” Sharon moved back towards the table where Vanessa was entertaining herself by trying to fit an empty bottle into a mug. “You ok honey?”

“I want my mommy” Vanessa sniffled out but didn’t protest when Sharon lifted her up again as they moved back into the room with the window. 

Nora stepped up to the window and peered into the generator room, sparks of electricity were flying around the room and she could see a door on the other side. ‘Looks like the only way out’. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted movement and saw the giant cockroach crawling around on the ground. Nora instinctively took a step back from the window. While doing so she finally spotted the heavy baton laying on the table. She snatched it up and started for the last door. 

“We can’t go in there.” Sharon grabbed onto Nora’s arm to keep her from opening the door. “We could die. What if one of us gets electrocuted?”

“We can't stay here.” Nora calming responded, not even trying to take her arm back. “The only other door is through that room. There is no food here and who knows how long the power will stay working. We can’t stay here.” 

While the two women were talking Ian walked up and peered through the window. Watching where the electricity was striking and unfortunately where the bugs seem to roam. Ian watched as a bug moved off the walkway along the side of the room and was fried but it’s creepy friend seemed to be safe. 

“It looks like the walkway is safe. If we stay close to the wall we will probably be fine.” Ian stated as he walked back over to the women. 

“I’ll go first,” Nora said as he extended the baton. “If one of those bugs comes at us I can whack it.”

“They can’t be that bad.” Sharon re-adjusted Vanessa to her other side so she would be closer to the wall. 

“I don’t like bugs.” Vanessa whispered as she tried to hide her face in Sharon’s shoulder. 

“Me neither” Nora absently said as she opened the door. 

Stepping into the electrically charged room caused the hair on their necks and arms to stand on end. Shivering at the feeling, Nora led the group quietly but as quickly as they could around the generators. Sharon gasped once she saw the dead bug, angling Vanessa from seeing it. Though it didn’t help when they rounded the corner and the skeleton came into view. Vanessa screamed and covered her eyes, trying to hide. 

The scream caught the other bugs attention, it jumped at Nora who managed to hit it before it got too close to her. She felt relieved that even though they were big it didn’t take much to kill them. 

Ian opened the door and quickly got everyone out of the dangerous room. Closing the door in case there were any more giant cockroaches. They soon found themselves in what appeared to be an office. On the floor was another long dead body, a terminal on the desk, and two doors. One leading to a bedroom suite and the other locked. 

Nora found two guns and some ammo scattered around the office, she grabbed both. While Nate was the one military trained, he always insisted that Nora needed to know how to use a gun as well. While she might not be a marksman she logged quite a few hours at the shooting range. 

“Sharon, do you know how to use a gun?” Nora asked the other woman. 

“I’m not a bad shot with a rifle but I have only ever hunted before.” Sharon responded, her eyes large, not ready to be asked that kind of question. 

“Do you think you could use this?” Nora held out the other 10mm to her. 

Sharon opened her mouth to say she didn’t want it but remembered how big those cockroaches were and silently nodded her head. Setting Vanessa back on the floor before accepting the gun and ammo from Nora. Once she gave the gun a quick once over she made sure the safety was on before kneeling down to Vanessa. 

“I’m going to need you to stay close to me, ok?” After Vanessa gave her understanding she continued. “If you see me or Nora point our guns at anything at all, I want you to cover your ears and close your eyes.” 

“Ok” came the quiet reply. Vanessa was on the verge of tears again. All of this was just too much for the little girl. 

“I can open the evacuation tunnel from here.” Ian perked up from the other room the sound of keys tapping getting a little faster. Then the sound of a door opening. 

Nora went over to Ian, patting him on his shoulder. “Good job. Here, keep this. It might help you.” Nora handed Ian the baton, at the confused look on his face she showed him the pistol she was now carrying. Ian gave a short nod and grabbed the baton from her. Nora once again led the group out through the exit and was immediately happy about finding the extra firepower. 

They ran into a swarm of those giant cockroaches. Ian kept Vanessa behind him while Nora and Sharon fired at the bugs. It didn’t take long for the two of them to kill all the bugs but not without receiving a few nasty bites of their own. And soon the group was on its way again. 

One more door and they were finally at the vault door. It looked like the vaults security and lab technicians tried to escape the vault but died trying from the bodies littering the floor. Vanessa was whimpering and crying softly as she clings to Ian. Nora walks up to the control panel and presses the button, but nothing happens. She presses it again but still nothing happens. She looks over to the other control panel, thinking that maybe something over there will help, she carefully makes her way around the skeleton. Then her foot hits something heavier than bone, looking down she spots the Pipboy on the ground, a white plug dangling from it. Nora grabs it up to inspect it, looking at the strange plug she sees it will fit into the control panel. Figuring this must be the way forward she straps the Pipboy onto her wrist. 

What she isn’t ready for is the stabbing pain that comes from her forearm before the Pipboy boots up. But once it seems like it's done she plugs in the Pipboy and presses the button again, and this time it works. Smiling she backs up to the group as they wait for the vault door to open and bridge to extend. Once the door was open they all climbed onto the lift. Nora’s heart hammering away in her chest. This was it, they will know if it was safe outside or not. Hitting the up button they took the agonizingly slow ride to reach the top. 

Suddenly blinded, after being accustomed to the low fluorescent lighting within the vault, the sun's natural light was a bittersweet relief. That was until their eyes adjusted. Taking in the post-apocalyptic panorama of the wasteland that was once a place they called home.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea that hit me when I play fallout and I finally decided to write it. This is my first time ever sharing something I've written and comments are more than welcomed.


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